e as to
satisfy the most violent hatred--such for instance as we found here.
It did not require our pride to keep our hearts up or to keep us from
feeling the humiliation of so cruel an ordeal. We simply did not
experience the painful sensations that such a proceeding would
ordinarily arouse in the breast of any man; just as after heavy
shell-fire no man feels either fear or courage; he is too dazed and
stupid for either. Many spat at us and good old _Englaender Schwein_
came to us from every side. It seemed like meeting an old friend,
after our few days away from it. The faces of these people were
different from those we had left at camp but their hearts were the
same. They lined the streets and jeered at us. But we were too tired
and hungry to care.

And that ended that trip to Holland.

CHAPTER XV

PAYING THE PIPER

Sheer Starvation--Slipping It Over the Sentry--The Court
Martial--Thirty Days Cells--No Place for a Gourmand--In
Napoleon's Footsteps--Parniewinkel Camp--"Like Father, Like
Son"--The Last Kind German--Running Amuck--The Torture of the
Russians--The Continental Times--"K. of K. Is Gone!"

Upon arrival at camp, we were put in cells for eleven days while
awaiting our court-martial.

During that period we suffered terribly from sheer starvation. The
daily rations consisted of a poor soup and a small quantity of black
bread. Hungry though I was, there was only one way by which I could
eat it--hold my breath and swallow. I am aware that the Germans
consider this food quite palatable but that may be because they are
accustomed to it. It was to us the resort of starving men. The cells
were quite dark--four-by-eight-foot wooden boxes. The confinement and
short rations on top of our arduous journey, during which we had had
nothing but the two biscuits a day, caused us to grow weaker daily.

Our friends, however, contrived occasionally to get portions of their
food to us. They maintained a sentry of their own, whose duty it was
to watch for and report our trips to the latrine. It was unsafe for us
to ask for this permission more than once a day with the same guard.
As the latter was frequently changed, however, we were enabled to work
the scheme to the limit.

At the worst, this let us out of our cells for a few minutes; and, if
we were lucky, enabled us to get a handful of broken food. Seeing us
come out, the prisoner on watch would stroll into the hut and pass the
word. Shortly, anoth